功能語法學

Abstract

課程首頁

本課程是由交通大學外國語文物學系提供。

This course is designed to give a general survey of current syntactic theories, with a special emphasis on functional approaches to grammar. It aims to explore the differences between ‘formal’ and ‘functional’ paradigms for syntactic analysis, with a thorough discussion of their 1) theoretical premises, 2) research concerns, 3) data collection 4) analytical methodology, and 5) explanatory principles. The first half of the class will focus on form-function associations as manifested in the English grammar. The second half will then introduce a variety of functional explanatory mechanisms with illustrations from a wide range of languages. The ultimate goal of this class is to familiarize students with contemporary syntactic theories that take grammar as coding devices for coherent communication.

“Syntax codes what people do the most” – T. Givon.

課程目標/概述 This course is designed to give a general survey of current syntactic theories, with a special emphasis on functional approaches to grammar. It aims to explore the differences between ‘formal’ and ‘functional’ paradigms for syntactic analysis, with a thorough discussion of their 1) theoretical premises, 2) research concerns, 3) data collection 4) analytical methodology, and 5) explanatory principles. The first half of the class will focus on form-function associations as manifested in the English grammar. The second half will then introduce a variety of functional explanatory mechanisms with illustrations from a wide range of languages. The ultimate goal of this class is to familiarize students with contemporary syntactic theories that take grammar as coding devices for coherent communication.

“Syntax codes what people do the most” – T. Givon.

課程章節

內容綱要

Formal vs. Functional approaches to syntax

Theoretical framework: Grammar as form-function association

Definitions of ‘function’

Explanatory Principles

Discourse basis for syntactic categories

Discourse and cognition

Argument structure and information status

Language universal: Transitivity

Construction grammar

Emergent Grammar

Corpus and grammaticalization

課程書目

English Grammar: a function-based introduction. Vol. I and II, by T. Givon. 1993. John Benjamins.- Syntax, vol. I & II, by T. Givon. 1984.

參考書目

Givon, T. 1984. Syntax Vol. I. Background. Li, Charles and Sandra Thompson. 1976. Subject and topic: a new typology of language, in Subject and Topic, ed. by Charles Li. Hopper, Paul and Sandra Thompson. 1984. The discourse basis for lexical categories in universal grammar. Language (60): 703-753. Hopper, Paul and Sandra Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language (56): 251-299. Chafe, Wallace. 1987. Cognitive constraints on information flow, in Coherence and Grounding in Discourse, ed. By Russell Tomlin. Du Bois, John. 1987. The discourse basis for ergativity. Language (63): 805-855. Goldberg, Adele. 1999. Constructions. A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Thompson, Sandra, and Paul Hopper. 1997. Emergent grammar and argument structure: evidence from conversation. Paper presented at the Symposium on Discourse and grammar. Thompson, Sandra, and Anthony Mulac. 1991. A quantitative perspective on grammaticalization of epistemic parentheticals in English. In Approaches to Grammaticalization, vol. 2, eds. by E. Trauggot and B. Heine, 313-329. Amsterdam: Benjamins Publishing Co.

評分標準

項目 百分比

Attendance and active participation 20%

Weekly reading and assignment 20%

Group project and oral presentation 20%

Small paper 20%

Mid-term take-home exam 20%

授課對象：研究所學生

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